The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a control method thereof and, for example, relates to a semiconductor device that includes a plurality of processing units and a control method thereof.
In a recent trend, a plurality of processing units such as processors are placed in a single semiconductor device such as a microcomputer. Further, a mechanism in which, when an error occurs in a certain processing unit (a certain processing unit has failed) in such a structure including a plurality of processing units, a normal processing unit takes over a task that has been executed in the processing unit where the error has occurred (the failed processing unit) is proposed.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-11426 discloses a processing device in which, even when one of a plurality of processing units becomes defective, processing of this processing unit is performed by another processing unit. The processing device according to the above literature includes a plurality of abnormality detection circuits which detect an abnormality of a plurality of processing units and generates an abnormality detection signal and an abnormality monitoring control unit which controls at least one normal processing unit in a normal state to perform an abnormality saving process. Further, the processing device according to the above literature includes a register to which a reset instruction is set by a normal processing unit and which outputs, to an abnormal processing unit, the reset instruction that has been set in order to reset the abnormal processing unit.